A harsh reality landed upon the Chicago Bulls Monday night — The Bulls played their best; their best was not good enough. They made the right decisions, they scrapped and fought inside, they played with passion.

And they lost. The final score was 112-102, and that 10-point margin is how much the Cleveland Cavaliers pulled away in the fourth quarter with their superior talent.

Joakim Noah loves to talk, but he keeps backing it up like this on the court and he can run his mouth all he wants. He had a team high 25 points on 10 of 18 shooting, plus pulled down 13 rebounds. He, along with a feisty Luol Deng (who also brought it hard for the night) were at the heart of a Bulls effort inside that included 13 offensive boards and 19 second chance points. They were at the heart of a smaller Bulls front line that helped outscore the Cavaliers 56-38 in the paint.

The Bulls also didn’t turn the ball over (just four for the whole game) and they made the extra pass on offense, and 61 percent of their baskets came off assists.

And they lost. Mostly because of LeBron James.

In the end, the game is about shooting the basketball. The Bulls simply don’t do that well, they haven’t all season — on the season they shot 47.7 percent (eFG%, which counts a bonus for three pointers made, just like the scoreboard does), that was 28th in the league. The only teams that shot worse than the Bulls this season were New Jersey and Detroit. It’s a testament to how hard they played that they overcame that shooting, both Monday night and on the season.

Cleveland, on the other hand, can shoot the ball (third best shooting team in the league). While the Bulls shot 44 percent overall and 31 percent from three in the game, the Cavaliers shot 56 percent and 50 percent from three. Do that and you win pretty much every time.

LeBron had 40 points, 15 of those in the decisive fourth quarter. While he had some plays at the rim — James Johnson, just stay out of the way next time — LeBron hit 9 of 16 on jump shots. He took four three-pointers and made two. When his outside shot is falling, he is inhuman.

But this wasn’t just the LeBron James show — he sat to start the fourth quarter and the Cavs started to pull away without him. Antawn Jamison hit a pretty little floater, Delonte West had an and-1 play. Even after LeBron returned and started doing LeBron things, other guys made plays. Like Anderson Varejao hitting a clutch jump shot late — if you’re Chicago you forced the Cavs to take the shot you wanted them to, and they hit it. What can you do? Also, Jamario Moon was hitting big threes all night long.

Bottom line is Cleveland is better than Chicago. Intellectually everyone knew that going in, but last night was the revelation of that fact on a gut level. The Bulls may pull out a game as the series shifts to the city with the best pizza in the nation, but last night showed us how this series will end.

So, the Bulls got ramrodded in Game 1. It happens to 8th seeds. But they did make a furious comeback and weren’t completely outside the context of a comeback. So is there anything the Bulls can do to try and combat the numerous advantages the Cavs have tonight?

The answer lies at the heart of the most dreaded of NBA tactics: smallball.

I know, lunacy, right? Going smallball against a team with Shaq is like trying to bring the funk at a Confederate Railroad concert. But that’s exactly what the Bulls did at times, and it hurt them. It may be time to focus on winning the rebounding battle by going big, and simply forsake the ability to even deter the game’s best player.

LeBron James had a quiet night comparatively speaking in Game 1, but also had his way with Luol Deng to the point you can’t consider it a favorable matchup. Plus, Deng allowed James to kickstart the rest of the offense, and that’s the worst of both worlds. He’s going to get his points. But if you throw yourself at him and allow him to open the floor, that’s the Cavaliers at their best.

Meanwhile, Taj Gibson, who is undersized to begin with, was dominated on the glass by Anderson Varejao. The Bulls had some success when Hakim Warrick, who is the same height but with better length, and veteran knowledge came in. Moving Gibson to the bench in reserve of Deng may not be a bad idea. Even if the King torches Gibson (as he would), that’s the devil you know. Locking down the perimeter is much more important for the Bulls, if Warrick, Gibson, and Noah combined can provide some rebounding.

Another possible adjustment on the outside is to use a second half rotation of Warrick at the three “guarding” LeBron, with Brad Miller sliding to the four, and Noah at the five. That puts a long, athletic defender at the three, Brad Miller at the four to combat Varejao, and Noah still trying to handle Shaq at the five. You can switch Miller and Noah depending on if Shaq or Zydrunas Ilgauskas is in.

None of this will matter if Derrick Rose can’t keep Mo Williams in front of him. The answer to that riddle may lie in switching Kirk Hinrich on to him, to pester him, since Hinrich’s shot has gone cold (again) and you need to save Rose’s energy anyway.

The common thought against powerhouse teams is to try and outrun them. And certainly, the Bulls’ halfcourt offense does not lend itself to conifdence about their ability to score with a bigger lineup. But surrendering offensive rebounds and being overpowered was definitely not the formula for success. At this point, there may not be anything that is worthless to try.